Question time

As many questions were left in the air as answers over the implications of the smoking ban during the Welsh legs of a series of BII roadshows...

As many questions were left in the air as answers over the implications of the smoking ban during the Welsh legs of a series of BII roadshows covering the smoking ban.

Speakers focused on preparations for what the group labelled "the single biggest and most important thing to affect the trade in many, many years".

Accusations were levelled, concerns were raised and guidelines were thrashed out by licensees, pubcos and local authorities attending the events in Llandudno and Cardiff.

With the Welsh Assembly publishing the regulations for the ban just days before the start of the roadshows, the events focused on the hurried preparations that licensees must make before the instigation of the ban on April 2 in Wales, April 30 in Northern Ireland and on July 1 in England.

Will councils be consistent?

Speaking at the event in Llandudno, Ginny Blakey, the Welsh Assembly's head of tobacco policy, explained that each local authority would be responsible for appointing trading standards, environmental health and licensing officers to police and enforce the ban. This prompted anxiety over potential inconsistency from council to council.

Punishments are set to include £50 fixed penalties for individual customers flouting the laws, and £200 penalties for licensees allowing customers to do so.

Lisa Sharkey of licensing solicitors Poppleston Allen said that different councils were also liable to charge different fees for pavement licences, and that the application process could take "anywhere between a couple of weeks and a year".

Graham Wall, operations director of south Wales pubco Consortium, said that his outlets had fallen victim to inconsistencies between the three councils that cover the group's seven pubs.

"Our experience has varied. You go from one council that is very proactive to one that has done nothing at all to prepare," he said.

Blakey countered these worries by saying: "This is not an excuse for raising money by slapping fines on people. Officers will work closely with local pubs to advise them. Fines will be the last resort."

She added: "The appointment of officers will not effect consistency because they will all be acting on the same guidance."

Have the regulations arrived too late?

There was also some concern that the regulations had simply arrived too late for pubs to put measures in place for the ban.

Stephen Oliver, managing director of Marston's Pub Company, said: "The amount of guidance from government has been appalling. Fortunately, it is now becoming clearer, but it is much later than we would have liked."

Phil Brookes, Coors account manager for North Staffordshire, said that often, when licensees had asked him questions about the implication of the ban, "it had made me realise how little clue we in the industry have had.

"Licensees have been given bad advice by solicitors. We now realise some of the things we thought would be legal are not going to be."

Are pubcos doing enough to support their tenants?

Licensees levelled accusations that pubcos were often not going far enough to support their tenants in preparing for the ban.

Pubcos were able to counter such claims, saying that in many cases it was the tenants not facing up to the challenge of a smoke-free era. Stephen Oliver described Marston's task as a "big challenge to overcome tenant apathy".

He also pointed to a scheme under which Marston's licensees were being offered free contract cleaning of curtains, carpets and upholstery before the ban comes into place.

According to Wayne Roach, tied trade manager at Robinsons, the company had, over the last year, undertaken a full survey of its estate in light of the ban, financial packages had been agreed with each house to provide timed heating and lighting for outdoor areas, and Robinsons had negotiated packages with furniture suppliers.

How will the ban pan out? Delegates at the BII's smoking roadshows in Wales deliver their verdict

Lawrence Scally, manager of the Gladstone, Conwy

"We have found most customers choose the non-smoking side of our pub, and many smokers are now choosing to go outside for a fag. There are encouraging signs that the ban is being phased in."

Jim Sullivan, licensing manager for Neath Port Talbot Council

"From my perspective, dealing with licensing, it's going to be a case of advising people what the implications are. Licensees have not been particularly clued up because legislation is only just only just coming into place.

"I will be taking an educational role at first. My belief is that enforcement will be non-confrontational."

John Denley, licensee of the Salutation Inn, near Newport, Pembrokeshire, and BII Welsh vice-chairman

"The fact that there have only been eight prosecutions over smoking in Scotland suggests that the authorities are being quite lenient."

Graham Wall, Consortium Group operations director

"The Welsh Assembly makes me laugh when it says the guidance on the regulations is being posted out this week. The ban's only six weeks away. This really is a self-help society."

Stephen Thomas, of licensing solicitors ASB Law, and a nominated BII tutor

"In pubs that are limited to one or two letting rooms, designating one of them as no smoking could really affect their margins. If a room is designated as smoking, even if a customer wishes to, they will not be allowed to make use of that room if they are a non-smoker. That is perverse, it will effect profitability and it needs to be looked at."

See you there

The Fresh Air, Fresh Thinking team is joining the BII roadshows in informal surgery sessions after the main seminars.

The remaining seminars take place on the following dates:

March 6 Plymouth, Devon

March 7 Farnham, Surrey - SOLD OUT

March 13 Ashford, Kent

March 14 Ipswich, Suffolk

March 20 Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire

March 21 Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

March 27 Reading, Berkshire

March 28 Bloomsbury, London

March 29 Aston Villa, Birmingham